For their crime committed in Cambodia last September, 13 Filipino women who illegally acted as surrogate mothers were tried and found guilty, ending up in prison. They were sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended by the Cambodian court.
They were allowed to return to the Philippines late last week after receiving a royal pardon from Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni on December 26.
The court had found strong evidence that the 13 women had the intention “to have babies to sell to a third person in exchange for money, which is an act of human trafficking.”
The Cambodian court did not say what the fate of the babies would be when they were born but this has become moot and academic with their mothers’ return to their homeland.
A Cambodian woman was also sentenced to two months in prison for being an accomplice. She was found to have cooked the meals of the Filipino women.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “upon the request of the Philippine embassy and with the endorsement of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the Royal Decree pardoning all 13 Filipinos paved the way for their release and immediate repatriation.”
Surrogacy has been banned in Cambodia since 2016.
Since returning to the Philippines, two of the Filipino women have given birth with one having twins while the others are still pregnant as of press time. The children to be conceived by them are to be considered as Filipino citizens.
The Filipino women were not alone in the illegal surrogacy program as the Cambodian police had arrested a total of 24 foreign women in the kingdom’s Kandal province. All were charged with attempted cross-border human trafficking.
Initial reports say that the Filipinos were told that they would serve as surrogate mothers in Thailand but were instead taken to Cambodia.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has provided temporary shelter for the 13 Filipino women, who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday.
They were accompanied back to the Philippines by a Cambodian doctor and a Filipino nurse.
The 13 Filipino women and three babies were placed under the DSWD’s Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked persons.
In a related development, the Senate may investigate the surrogacy scheme victimizing Filipino women.
This far, it is not clear how widespread the practice is, and if more Filipinos have become victims of the money-making scheme.
Last year, however, scores of Filipino men and women were also found to have made their way to the so-called Asean golden triangle comprised of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar to work illegally in gambling and phone sex online sites.
There, they worked as virtual slaves. Philippine authorities could do little to help them as the golden triangle is considered a no man’s land ruled by local warlords.
The Senate held a hearing on the Filipinos trapped in the golden triangle and Philippine and local authorities have been able to rescue a handful.
The rescued Filipinos said they were told that they would be getting high-paying jobs. They were not told that it would be online marketing work that required them to meet certain quotas, failure of which resulted in not only their being deprived of their pay.
In worst cases, they were subjected to such tortures as being deprived of food and water or forced to work up to 24 hours non-stop without sleep.
